Cyber terrorist or modern-day hero?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, albeit in a British jail, continues to rock the world of diplomacy. One commentator wonders whether he isn’t a neo-con tool, while a source in the Kremlin is reported as saying Assange should get the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s the focus in today’s international press review: THURSDAY 9TH DECEMBER 2010

Papers worldwide are covering the specific angles on the latest Wikipedia leaks that affect them. In Australia, the interest is in who could be the US “protected” source there. In France, the attention is on revelations about African countries. The top story is the cyber war underway. The UK paper The Guardian headlines: “Cyber war erupts as WikiLeaks supporters join fray”. It opens its piece quoting a blogger saying: “this is the first great Cyber war”. It covers revenge attacks by pro-Wikileaks “hacktivists” on MasterCard and other sites that have recently made life difficult for WikiLeaks. The paper is one of the handful chosen to divulge US secret cables. A photo shows Assange supporters calling for “Justice for Julian”. He faces extradition from the UK to Sweden and possibly to the US after handing himself over to UK police.

Carlo Rovelli in Cassis in southern France, writing to the Letters Page, agrees that this is about transparency, adding that “prosecuting Assange will enhance his credibility”. The activist, the letter writer says, is “a modern-day hero”.

The New York Daily News reports the full version of John Lennon’s final interview is available in the latest edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Rolling Stone spoke to Lennon three days before he was killed outside his New York flat 30 years ago. He spoke about his fear of becoming a “dead hero”. “Critics want dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean,” he said, “I’m not interested in being that”. With all the diplomatic wrangling and sabre-rattling at the moment, a global sing song of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and “Give Peace A Chance” would be welcome.